Well, duh, Jacob! Was I supposed to be all happy after you just disappeared that way the night before? I was torn between worry and anger all night long.
Okay, sorry, I should just focus on the story.
So …
I was holding both braids and looking serious when Jacob came along the path the next morning.
“What’s wrong?” he asked when he saw me.
“I don’t know which one to chew! If you were telling me true last night, it will be the thinking braid. But if you made all that up, and then cut off the phone call to leave me hanging, it’s the angry braid for sure. Except first I clobber you. Then I kick you out of my life. And then I take time to chew the angry braid.”
“Lily, I swear on my grandmother’s grave I was telling the truth.”
“Let’s see if you really mean it. Follow me.”
Jacob sighed; he knew what was coming. A few minutes of walking through the grass, which was still wet with dew, brought us to his mother’s mother’s grave.
“Okay, put your hand on that tombstone and swear. But remember … if you tell a lie on your grandmother’s grave, the Midnight Terrors will chase you for the rest of your life.”
Without hesitation, Jacob put his left hand on the stone, his right hand over his heart, and said solemnly, “I swear on my grandmother’s grave that everything I told you last night was true.” Then, clearly trying to get ahead of things, he added, “I also swear that everything I’m going to tell you right now is true too!”
Excitement bubbled up inside me. “Great galloping zombies, Jacob! This is the most fabulous thing ever!”
“Easy for you to say. You weren’t there!”
“Wish I had been. Hey … maybe it will happen again tonight!”
“Huh?”
“Well, in a lot of lycanthrope movies the transformation occurs three nights in a row.” (As a fan of the frightening, I prefer the term lycanthrope to the simpler werewolf.)
Jacob turned pale. “I dunno. Let me tell you what happened next. It was even scarier, but it makes me think I’ve got a month before it happens again.”
I listened to his story. If he was making this up, he was as good as his grandfather! “That’s really freaky,” I said when he was finished. “I’m glad you didn’t pass out from fear on the spot.”
“I thought I was going to!”
“I don’t blame you. Okay, we need to do some research. Um … are you going to tell your mother about this?”
“Do you think she’d believe me?”
“I don’t know, since I’ve never met her!”
This was a dig, and I could tell from the way Jacob blushed that he knew it. See, he had never invited me to his house. Of course, I had never invited him to my house, either. The difference was that his mother didn’t have anything against me, whereas my grandfather really disliked Jacob. We never talked about it, but I had a feeling that the real reason he didn’t ask me over was that he didn’t want to admit to his mother he had a friend who was a girl.
“You still can’t meet her,” he said now.
“Why not?”
“Because she can’t know I told you about LD! But I do want you to see the baby. Maybe you’ll spot something I missed, something that will give me proof. Hmmm … Mom’s teaching Friday night. She’ll be gone from about five thirty to eight o’clock. Can you come over then?”
I chewed my right braid for a minute, then said, “I’ll have to come up with a good excuse to give Grampa. But I think I can do it.”
We didn’t spend much time in the cemetery over the next week. Instead we were at the library, using the internet to research monsters. We found some really cool stuff, some other stuff that was pretty terrifying, and some stuff that left me wishing you could buy eyewash for your brain. Unfortunately, none of what we found seemed to apply to baby monsters. And what we found when we searched on baby monsters was a lot of cutesy junk that made me want to yark.
The one good thing was that we uncovered some useful information on the matter of the full moon. It seems that despite what happens in movies, in reality the moon is only full one night of the month. Actually, it’s only really full for about a minute, since the moment of fullness comes when the moon is exactly opposite the sun. Because the moon is constantly moving, for any given spot true full passes very quickly.
I guess the reason for three nights is that it makes it easier for Hollywood to pack a lot of action into a film. This annoys me. People should be more careful when they’re writing about monsters!
Jacob’s house has seen better days. Even so, I think it’s totally fabulous … three stories high, with a wide veranda that wraps around the corner on the right side of the front door. Hmmm. Corner might not be the right word, because this is where the tower curves out from the main body of the house. The roof of the tower is a cone that stretches several feet above the already high roof. It’s cool … almost like a rocket attached to the side of the house.
I cannot tell you how much I wanted to see inside that tower!
To be honest, I had been wanting to see inside the whole house from the first time I walked past it, back in second grade. That desire had tripled when I found out that my writing hero had lived there. So I was very prompt and rang the doorbell at 5:35.
“How did you know it was safe?” demanded Jacob when he opened the door. “What if Mom hadn’t left on schedule?”
I rolled my eyes. “Do you really think your mother would find it dangerous for you to have a friend over to visit?”
“She would right now! I keep telling you, she doesn’t want anyone else to know about LD.”
“Well I’m not stupid! I hid in the bushes at the end of the driveway and waited until she pulled out before I rang the bell. So are you going to ask me in, or do I have to stand on the porch all night?”
“Sorry, sorry,” said Jacob, swinging the door open.
“This place is ginormous,” I murmured as I stepped into the entryway.
“Way too ‘ginormous’ for two people and a baby monster,” replied Jacob.
“Better than being too small for two people,” I said. Instantly I felt bad, because it might have seemed I was saying something mean about my grandfather, who took me in when I needed him. “Where’s the baby?” I asked, to change the subject.
“In his high chair. Come on.”
We made our way back to the kitchen. As soon as I saw Little Dumpling, I said, “Oh, Jacob, he is soooooo cute!”
Despite what Jacob has claimed ever since, I want to make it clear that I did not, repeat did not, actually squeal these words.
He scowled. “I knew you were going to get all girly!”
“Oh, shut up. He’s cute, and you know it.”
“I guess so. He’s less cute once he turns green and the fangs come out.”
“Can I hold him?”
“If you want.”
As soon as Jacob removed the tray from the high chair, LD stretched out his arms. I scooped him up. Without hesitation he cuddled against me.
If you’ve ever held a baby, you know that special baby smell … and I don’t mean the odor of a full diaper! It’s something you get when you nuzzle your nose against the top of a baby’s head, and it’s one of the best smells in the world. Holding LD close, I plunked down in one of the wooden chairs. Then I bounced him on my knee while I sang my newest song, “The Chipmunk’s Funeral.”
“It’s a good thing he can’t understand you,” said Jacob. “You’d probably creep him out.”
“Ha-very-ha. Hey, do you have a video camera?”
He blinked at the sudden change of topic. “Why? Do you want to me to film you singing to the baby?”
As he said this, LD squawked and held out his arms to be transferred to Jacob. I took one last sniff of his head, then passed him over. When he was safely snuggled in Jacob’s arms, I said, “No, I don’t want a video of me singing to the baby! I want to help save your skin, you goof. Think about it! If your mother is out during the next full moon and things go wrong, you’re really going to need something to show her.”
Jacob turned pale. “Yeah, I see what you mean.”
“So, do you have one?”
“I don’t know. Maybe in one of the junk rooms. Dad kept—”
“Junk rooms?”
Jacob blushed. “I come from a long line of pack rats. Wanna help me look?”
“Sure!”
We went up by the back stairway. It took a little while, because Jacob had to touch certain spots along the wall, and holding the baby made it a bit tricky. I kept my mouth shut about that part. But when we reached the top and I looked ahead, I gasped. I couldn’t believe how long that hall was! Jacob started forward, but I kind of dawdled, because I was looking at the portraits lining the walls.
Suddenly I gasped. “Jacob!” I yelled. “JACOB!”